Gearing up for the second defense of her DEEP JEWELS atomweight title, Tomo Maesawa (13-10) will return at DEEP JEWELS 29.
The challenger? A fighter who has quietly emerged as a potential problem in the form of Si Woo Park (3-2) of South Korea.
Standing under five-feet-tall, Tomo Maesawa is a 4’11 spark plug who appears to have been around forever despite being 32-years-old and in the prime of her life. Following two-straight wins in 2018, Maesawa capped off the year with the first title win of her career. Dethroning champion Mina Kurobe, Maesawa became one of DEEP’s biggest female stars overnight. Past her entertaining and effect style of fighting, she has an infectious and likable personality outside of competition as well.
With the new title, Tomo Maesawa’s first bout of 2019 was non-title action, typical of Japan for those who know and follow the Japanese MMA scene. In this fight, she faced a 21-year-old superstar-in-the-making in the form of RIZIN Fighting Federation’s Kanna Asakura. It was a highly-entertaining scrap that saw Asakura come out on top. Maesawa competed three more times last year, following the Asakura fight with a grappling exhibition with Quintet. She earned herself a shot in RIZIN, taking on ROAD FC title-holder and UFC veteran Seo Hee Ham in a losing effort at RIZIN 17. To close out the year, Tomo Maesawa defeated former champion Emi Tomimatsu back in October to make the first defense of her DEEP JEWELS atomweight championship.
Though her record may come across of undeserving, potentially unimpressive, Si Woo Park is a shockingly good performer when inside the cage. Losing her first two fights a pro, Park has strung together three-straight wins since then. This includes her first win as a fighter which came against the previously mentioned Emi Tomimatsu, a former world champion, in what was her DEEP JEWELS debut.
In 2018, the same year she defeated Tomimatsu, the young Si Woo Park returned home to South Korea and defeated Jade Choi at KAISER 02. She then took six months off, returning in June and trying her hand in kickboxing udner the REBELS banner. Back in December, Park scored her first finish, a knockout win against Japanese fan-favorite Hikaru Aono at DEEP JEWELS 93.
She is 2-0 in DEEP JEWELS, with two wins over some solid competition, and has earned this title shot.
DEEP JEWELS 29 takes place on May 6 live from the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. This will be the same date and venue as DEEP 95 Impact, meaning we have another double-header from DEEP in May.
Also on DEEP JEWELS 29, Suwanan Boonsorn (5-3) and Mizuki Furuse (7-6) will compete in the microweight tournament final, and an interim strawweight title bout between Asami Nakai (4-2) and Miki Motono (4-1).
